Audrey Hepburn’s Oldest Son in Legal Wrangle with Her Children's Fund

Audrey Hepburn with son, Sean Ferrer at the Wally Findlay Galleries in New York, 1979.

From Bettmann/Getty Images.

Audrey Hepburn’s oldest son, Sean Ferrer, is in a legal battle with the Audrey Hepburn Children’s Fund. The fund, which raises money for children's charities by exhibiting Audrey Hepburn memorabilia—centered mostly on a collection of Givenchy gowns—around the world, filed a lawsuit against Ferrer in Los Angeles Superior Court on Wednesday, claiming he's impeding the charity's fundraising for his own benefit.

The crux of the suit alleges that in 2013 and 2016, Ferrer halted or delayed exhibitions in Australia and South Korea, and in January of this year, threatened to sue a Chinese exhibitor to stop multiple showings of Hepburn's memorabilia in 2017 and 2018. The fund's ability to use Hepburn's name, likeness, and image—“the Hepburn IP”—to raise money for needy children through exhibitions of the Hepburn memorabilia is its primary means of raising money.

“Ferrer seeks to entirely control, limit, and prohibit the fund from using the Hepburn IP unless it is willing to pay a significant portion of the fundraising proceeds to Ferrer or as directed by him to preclude the fund from utilizing the Hepburn IP altogether,” the suit reads.

Ferrer started the fund with his half-brother, Luca Dotti, to license the Hepburn memorabilia that was split between him and Dotti shortly after their mother's death in 1993 (the men agreed then that all profits would go to charity). The suit claims that Ferrer “turned against the fund” starting in 2008, when his personal financial crisis was exacerbated by a “financially burdensome real-estate transaction in Italy” and a divorce from his third wife.

Ferrer stepped down from his position as chairman of the board and convinced Dotti to assume the role in 2012, a position that he still holds. Shortly after Dotti took over, Ferrer attempted to block the charity from displaying his mother’s items, including clothing, jewelry, vintage posters, and photographs, according to the lawsuit. Dotti is seeking to keep the fund operating.

The charity's attorney, Steven E. Young, said in a statement, “Sean should be ashamed of himself for violating his mother’s deepest wishes to care for children.”

Vanity Fair has reached out to Ferrer for comment.

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